DIEGO Project

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DIEGO Final Conference - "E-Inclusion and Digital Public Services"

Cambridge, 25th September 2012

The DIEGO project has reached the final phase of the timeline and the DIEGO Partners are please to invite all interested parties and stakeholders to the Final Conference, which will be held on the 25th September in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, UK.

The Final Conference will be titles "E-Inclusion and Digital Public Services" and it will provide an opportunity to present the main topics that have been faced by the DIEGO project partners and the challenges for the future of Digital Inclusion in their regions. The Conference will feature a number of high-level speakers who will provide the audience with their vision of what inclusive eGovernment should be.

The conference is aimed at local and regional authorities, non-governmental organisations, voluntary and community sector organisations, higher and further educational establishments, private sector companies and individuals with accessibility requirements. To download the Programme for the Conference please click here.

For more information and to register for the Conference, please go to the DIEGO project website: www.diego-project.eu.

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MWRA and Limerick City Council host DIEGO seminar in Limerick - 26th April 2012

This seminar, organised by the Mid-West Regional Authority and Limerick City Council, was held on Thursday, 26th April 2012 in the Clarion Hotel, Steamboat Quay, Limerick City from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm. The seminar aimed to present the policies and trends in Ireland with regard to Digital Inclusion and the progress to date of implementing the Digital Agenda for Europe.

The seminar also presented the DIEGO pilot currently underway in Limerick and some of the results to date. The pilot, accessible through the simply.limerick.ie website aims to make some Limerick City Council services and information available to citizens who may have a lack of digital skills.

Attendees at the DIEGO Seminar, 26th April 2012 Presentation of the DIEGO platform (simply.limerick.ie)

Please click here to download the brochure and seminar agenda.

The presentations from the seminar are available for download here:

Morning Session: Digital Inclusion in Ireland

Afternoon Session: DIEGO Project

The DIEGO Project Partners from Ireland, U.K., Greece, Cyprus, Spain and Italy in Limerick for the DIEGO Seminar and Partner Meeting, 26th and 27th April 2012

For further information in relation to the DIEGO project, please contact Fiona McCormack or Stuart Calton at info@mwra.ie or 067-33197.

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DIEGO - “highly scalable Deployment model” of Inclusive E-Government

Limerick City Council launch Free Wi-Fi in Public Buildings in Limerick City

Free public wi-fi is now provided by Limerick City Council in a number of public buildings across Limerick City.

The service, which allows members of the public to browse the internet free of charge is now available at all branches of Limerick City Library and in public areas of Limerick City Hall as well as the newly refurbished Limerick City Gallery of Art in Pery Square.

For more information, please click here.

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DIEGO in Limerick City: Accessible touchscreen now available in City Hall

Limerick City Council, in partnership with the MWRA, has now installed a large touchscreen computer screen in City Hall which makes the DIEGO platform available to all citizens.

Mihai Bilauca, Limerick City Council, demonstrating the DIEGO platform in Limerick City Hall

The screen has been launched in City Hall and will provide all citizens with access to the Council’s online services and to www.limerick.ie via the DIEGO platform.

DIEGO to assist in providing training to 800 Limerick Citizens

In addition, the MWRA and Limerick City Council have formed a partnership with Limerick Community Connect, a local not for profit organisation, to provide access to the DIEGO platform to citizens who are receiving training in digital skills in Limerick. Limerick Community Connect were awarded funding from the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources to provide digital skills training to 800 citizens in Limerick City, under the BenefIT 3 Scheme.

The participants in the scheme will receive basic training on Internet and email and also on the use of eGovernment services. Limerick Community Connect will be using the DIEGO platform, developed by Limerick City Council and the MWRA, in order to provide this training. The training, which commences in February 2012, will run over a number of weeks up to the end of June 2012.

Further information in relation to the other partners’ pilots is available on the project website -www.diego-project.eu.

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Pilot Launch - simply.limerick.ie

Limerick City Council, in partnership with the MWRA, will be launching a number of their services via the DIEGO accessible platform. The services will be available on simply.limerick.ie, commencing in mid-November, and will be pilotted in Limerick City in the coming months.

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Mid-West Regional Authority to participate in national seminar in Farmleigh, Dublin - Towards the Digital Horizon, 9th November 2011

The European Economic and Social Committee, in partnership with Dublin City Council, are hosting a forum in Farmleigh, Dublin on the 9th November 2011 entitled "Towards the Digital Horizon: Creating an Inclusive Digital Future". The aim of the forum is for leaders and key decision makers to establish an action agenda for the development of an fully inclusive digital future in Ireland.

Representatives from the fields of Business, Education, Community, Sports organisations and Government have been invited and the Mid-West Regional Authority will participate.

The agenda for this event is available for download here.

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DIEGO Interim Conference - "Regional Governments Against the Digital Divide", Brussels, Sept 2011

The Mid-West Regional Authority attended the DIEGO intermediate conference held at the Committee of the Regions headquarters in Brussels on the 29th September 2011. The conference, under the title “Regional Governments Against The Digital Divide; DIEGO a Scalable Deployment Model of Inclusive e-Government”, presented the policies and trends related to inclusive eGovernment and the “Digital Agenda for Europe” with a focus on European public administrations. In particular, the role of regions in delivering efficient and accessible e-government public services was the main topic tackled at the conference.

The representative from the European Commission, Miguel González-Sancho, opened the conference by posing the question of how public authorities can effectively harness the potential of ICT in order to meet their citizens’ needs. In response to this, Mr. González showed his support to projects such as DIEGO, which has a great potential in assisting local and regional authorities to deliver services to all their citizens in a more efficient and inclusive way.

For more information on the conference and the presentations made, please visit the DIEGO project website – www.diego-project.eu.

DIEGO intermediate conference, Committee of the Regions, Brussels, September 2011

The MWRA and Limerick City Council, in partnership with Limerick Community Connect, will be rolling out a pilot in the coming months using the DIEGO software which aims to provide a number of their services in this new way.

Service Requests and Solutions: this facility will aim to provide citizens with a way to log a service request with their City Council (for example, to report a leak, to request a repair to lighting, to request maintenance work)
Use of Public Meeting Rooms: LCC will work with the City Libraries to provide an interface for citizens to book their public meeting rooms.
Ranks Flour Mills: DIEGO can provide a service where citizens can review the archives to keep up to date with the progress of a project which is gathering memorabilia from the old Ranks flour mills in the city.
www.limerick.ie: to provide inclusive access to all of the services provided on this new website via DIEGO

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Project Review Meeting, Valencia - 30th - 31st May, 2011

At the end of May the Mid-West Regional Authority and Limerick City Council, along with the other partners in the DIEGO project, met with representatives of the European Commission in Valencia to review the project’s progress over its first year in the six regions involved.

All partners shared their experiences regarding the implementation of the pilots: the difficulties they have faced and the first reactions from both citizens and officials. Limerick City Council presented the work done to date regarding the implementation of the DIEGO platform in cooperation with www.limerick.ie to make the Council's services more accessible to their citizens.

Other subjects covered at the review meeting in Valencia included legal and ethical issues regarding personal data and the future development of the project – issues regarding sustainability, variable market trends in partner countries and the exploitation of the DIEGO platform in other local and regional administrations.

The Commission experts also took the opportunity to learn how DIEGO is being deployed in all partner countries, giving recommendations that will enable DIEGO to be a model of digital inclusion for other European local and regional Governments.

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Project partner meeting held in Paphos, Cyprus on 28th Feb – 1st Mar, 2011

The project partners from the DIEGO regions met in Paphos for a meeting to discuss progress on project implementation. At the meeting, all regions, including the Mid-West Region presented their plans for launching the pilot phase of DIEGO in their region.

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DIEGO Project Meeting, Paphos, Cyprus

The MWRA and Limerick City Council are developing a pilot using the DIEGO software which aims to provide a number of their services in this new way.

Service Requests and Solutions: this facility will aim to provide citizens with a way to use their local library to log a service request with their City Council (for example, to report a leak, to request a repair to lighting, to request maintenance work)
Use of Public Meeting Rooms: LCC will work with the City Libraries to provide an interface for citizens to book their public meeting rooms.
Ranks Flour Mills: DIEGO can provide a service where citizens can review the archives to keep up to date with the progress of a project which is gathering memorabilia from the old Ranks flour mills in the city.
www.limerick.ie: to provide access to all of the services provided on this new website via DIEGO

Further information in relation to the other partners’ pilots is available on the project website (www.diego-project.eu).

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Project Description:

The main outcome of DIEGO will be to offer to any European Public Authority a FULL eAccesibility front-end for e-Government services, highly scalable and affordable.

Project Objectives:

1) a new “user-centric” and accessible service provision model for speeding up Inclusive e-Gov including trans-borders services, according to preferred ICT media available (interactive TV, smart mobile devices, [desktop] kiosks or PCs)

2) a “highly scalable Deployment Model”, based on a Software as a Service (SaaS) approach and widely accepted web services standards (guarantee of interoperability with any back-office) and the affordability of the implementation, beyond the project (self-sustainability phase).

Expected Results:

Pilot projects using DIEGO Model using Limerick City Council selected services, via www.limerick.ie

Project Website: www.diego-project.eu

Project Start Date: 01 April 2010

Project End Date: 31 March 2012

For further information on this project, please contact Ms. Fiona McCormack: fmccormack@mwra.ie or Mr. Stuart Calton: scalton@mwra.ie

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The DIEGO Project is cofunded by the EU ICT Policy Support Programme.

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